What Does Genesis 34:12 Mean in the King James?

Ask me never so much dowry and gift, and I will give according as ye shall say unto me: but give me the damsel to wife.

Genesis 34:12 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

THE KEY

The shared root of “gift” and “give” binds Shechem’s offered wealth to his demand that Dinah be handed over.

THE MEANING

After Shechem takes Dinah and violates her, he places wealth beside his demand that she be given to him as wife. He sets the terms while Dinah’s voice and consent are absent from the negotiation.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

Wealth offered after sexual violence does not turn a man’s demand into Dinah’s consent; this is his proposal, not her agreement.

THE ROOT

נָתַן

natan

GROWS FROM

נתן

give, set, place

The Hebrew uses forms of ⁨נתן⁩ (natan, give or place) in both “I will give” and “give me”; ⁨מַתָּן⁩ (mattan, gift) comes from the same root. The shared seed binds Shechem’s payment to his demand that Dinah be handed over, so the marriage language carries the shape of a transfer.

ALSO GROWS

mattan: gift

מַתָּן

The word for “gift” in this verse comes from the same root as the repeated verb “give.”

natan: give, set, place

נָתַן

Forms of this verb appear in both Shechem’s offer, “I will give,” and his demand, “give me.”

THE PATTERN

Marriage negotiations can make women the objects transferred while men determine the payment and terms.

And Jacob loved Rachel; and said, I will serve thee seven years for Rachel thy younger daughter.

Genesis 29:18 · KJVJacob names years of service as the price he offers for Rachel, making marriage part of an exchange negotiated with her father.

Then the man that lay with her shall give unto the damsel’s father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife; because he hath humbled her, he may not put her away all his days.

Deuteronomy 22:29 · KJVThe man pays the girl’s father, and the sentence assigns her as his wife, linking payment with marital transfer.

And Saul said, Thus shall ye say to David, The king desireth not any dowry, but an hundred foreskins of the Philistines, to be avenged of the king’s enemies. But Saul thought to make David fall by the hand of the Philistines.

1 Samuel 18:25 · KJVA bride-price becomes a demand for violence, with marriage serving as the vehicle for a king’s bargain.

THE THREAD

And Hamor communed with them, saying, The soul of my son Shechem longeth for your daughter: I pray you give her him to wife.

Genesis 34:8 · KJV

Hamor’s “give her him to wife” and Shechem’s “give me” use forms of ⁨נתן⁩ (natan, give or place). Their repeated verb makes Dinah’s transfer the center of the arrangement, while neither verse gives her a voice.

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